Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched development projects worth over ₹60,000 crore in Jharsuguda, Odisha, focused on digital connectivity, infrastructure and higher education, on Saturday.
On the occasion, the Prime Minister also commissioned more than 97,500 4G mobile towers built with BSNL’s indigenous technology stack. The towers were built at a cost of about Rs 37,000 crore. This marks India’s entry into an exclusive group of countries, including Denmark, Sweden, South Korea and China, which manufacture their own telecom equipment.
The India-made 4G network is cloud-based, energy-efficient and designed for seamless upgrades to 5G. The rollout, part of BSNL’s silver jubilee celebrations, is aimed at connecting over 26,700 previously unserved villages, including 2,472 in Odisha, and benefit nearly two million new subscribers. Many of these solar-powered towers form the country’s largest cluster of green telecom sites.
Modi also laid the foundation for the expansion of eight Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), which will add capacity for 10,000 students over the next four years. He also inaugurated a five-kilometre flyover in Sambalpur, which was built at a cost of Rs 273 crore. The flyover is expected to ease traffic in the city.
Modi described the 100 per cent 4G saturation project, implemented under Digital Bharat Nidhi, as a transformative step towards bridging India’s digital divide and empowering rural communities. Around 30,000 villages across the country will be connected through this mission-mode project.
Notably, this was Modi’s sixth visit to Odisha in 15 months since the BJP came to power in the state in June 2024. The PM’s visit to Jharsuguda came after a gap of seven years. His previous visit here was in September 2018 when he inaugurated Odisha’s second commercial airport.
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